World Kougei EF53

[Martijn Meerts]

One thing has me stumped though, and hopefully someone here can help.. Attaching the bogies to the frame is a bit of a strange construction, or rather, it seems a bit strange because I can't read the instruction I guess. If you look at this image: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10134032z3/70/3 , in the box in the right bottom corner it shows how to attack a bogie to the frame. What I'm wondering is, what does it say next to the screw that's just below and to the left of the red oval? I know I need to use an M1.4 screw, but it doesn't mention what length. When I use the M1.4 2mm screw mentioned in the bottom of that image to keep things in place, there's actually no room left on top to insert another screw ...

 

Quoting myself for a moment here (is this the internet equivalent of talking to myself? :)) .. 

 

I got me a trial version of OmniPage, an OCR software for (unfortunately) Windows, but the Mac OCR software seems to be severely lacking... Luckily, I have Windows 8 installed through bootcamp on my Mac ;)

 

So, I grabbed the linked image, optimised it some and passed it through OmniPage to get a selectable text version. After a little experimenting and fiddling, I believe I've managed to figure out what they mean. Basically, you have the fixture marked with Z-12 which connects to the frame. On this fixture you need to mount the bogie in such a way that it can rotate (obviously.. Not much point in a bogie that can't rotate ;)). Now here's the catch, what I believe they say, is that you use an M1.4 screw of any length to connect the fixture and the little ring type thing directly underneath Z-12, and then solder them together. Now that I look at it, the bit of text pointing towards the ring type thing does seem to mention solder as well.. This should be interesting, since I'm fairly certain I'll end up soldering the (temporary) screw as well :)

 

 

On a side note, that OmniPage seems like a very useful bit of software, not just for these kits, but for other train manuals as well. Makes it easy to scan a manual, get a selectable text, and copy/paste that into Google to get at least something to work from ..

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, I've hit a snag again.. I thought I had everything figure out with regards to the bogies and how to mount them, but turns out I'm still missing something. I can't get the motor to fit :)

 

Hopefully someone can help. I've attached an image showing part of the frame. The part I'm having issues with is the striped area basically which is the part that will be holding the shell in place. There's a an arrow pointing to it with a load of text. I ran the image though some OCR software, and got the following text:

 

連結フレーム座。車体に取付後斜線部切既番号は作業順

1、まず平板のうちに山折して座面を曲げ重ね、両側を立てコの字にして車体にハンダ。

2、中央部をニッパで切断．

3、斜め部分で斜線部分をアオリ取り座面のみにして終了。

 

I ran it though Google translate, but it didn't make an awful lot of sense. Anyone able to help a bit (I may have jumped the gun and messed up 1 of the 2 of those pieces that need to be installed ;))

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

It appears that I really can't work/concentrate on a single project at a time, so, while the yard is still progressing (wiring the 3rd section, adding additional wiring to the 2nd section, adjusting some wiring on the first section), I've continued work on the EF53 kit as well. Considering I have a World Kougei turntable kit coming in, I also figured I'd need to get a little more practice with soldering brass.

 

I've started work on the 2nd bogie/motor assembly, which is actually coming together a lot easier than the first one. Part of that is because I know how to assemble it, but I've also figured out better how to do the actual soldering. There are still some issues with parts of the instructions I just don't understand, like the bit from the previous post. I'm also uncertain of which couplers I need to use. I do believe the instructions mention part numbers for both Kato and MicroTrains.

 

While assembling the 2nd bogie I also noticed I had forgotten a couple of parts on the 1st bogie, some spacer rings for the axles. That meant I had to try and remove the wheels from the axle again, which had proven to be difficult with previous kits. However, with this one they fortunately came off relatively easy, so no harm done there. I did also manage to slightly melt 1 of the gears, but I believe that won't have any negative impact (I really need to be more careful :))

 

I'll try and snap some pictures tonight of the 2nd bogie in it's current state, as well as the shell which I've done a little bit of detail work on. Progress is still slow though because I just don't often get the time to really sit down for a couple of hours to work on it.

[Martijn Meerts]

Finally manages to grab a couple of pictures..

 

 

Image 047:

Current state of the 2nd bogie. On the left is the rest of the frame. It's basically just a simple bit of brass sheet which just holds the 2 bogies,  with a couple of white metal detail parts.

 

Image 048:

Closeup of the bogie frame. If you look at the holes at the right of the main bogie bit with the wheels, those holes are 1.4mm, which should give a little bit of an idea of the size (or lack thereof) of everything :)

 

Image 049:

Added a couple of detail bits to the shell as well. Only the small roof part that's discoloured a bit has been soldered, the rest is just temporarily put in place.  Obviously there's still a ton of stuff missing here.

[cteno4]

gorgeous martijn!!! great work

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

I have a rolling frame now. 2nd bogie was finished with the exception of a couple of white metal detail bits. Went ahead and installed a decoder right away, and give it some rounds around a test loop. It runs really well, although it acts a bit strange at low speeds, but some decoder fine tuning should fix that. It also needs a little straightening here and there, some parts are a little crooked.

 

The funny thing is, it's already about as heavy as the heaviest locomotive I have, and there's still the shell to go. And the kit even comes with additional lead weights ;)